At my school, all first year students have to live on campus, in the so called Skotel. Every week we have a cleaning check, when our rooms need to be vaccuumed, dusted and organized and our bathrooms shining and spotless. Today we have one, so I figured I'd take a few pictures now that our room is nice and clean (for once) and show you a bit what it looks like. It's quite intense sharing such a small space with someone else, but so far it works alright. It's a bit difficult to keep the room organized and clean, since we don't always have space for everything, but we make it work. Other than that, I like our room! I think I've managed to make my part quite cozy. After a trip to IKEA last week, I could put some photos up and organize my desk a bit better, so it's starting to look and feel more like home . I like it! 

This week has been heavy. On Thursday I got a text from a friend saying that one of our friends in common had passed away Wednesday evening. It was like the whole world just stopped around me. I was sitting outside in the garden of the school with some friends and seconds earlier we had been laughing and talking like always. Now it was like everything went mute and all I could see was those horrible words in that textmessage I will never forget and all I could say was "no, no, no", over and over again.

Yesterday we had a commemoration for her and it was beautiful. Because of her family's religion we can't attend the funeral. so I think it was good for everyone to get together and at least get some sort of closure. Talk about her and remember her, cry together and laugh together, have a drink together like she would've wanted. But it was heavy. So, so heavy. I only met this girl a few times but she had such a huge impact on me and everyone she met. Seeing her best friends screaming out their sorrow in the middle of the street and listening to her fiancé and sisters trying to get the words in their speaches out through all of their tears. But it was also beautiful, seeing so many people there who truly loved her. And we couldn't help but ask ourselves, if she could've known how many people would be there, how many people who's eyes were filled with tears of sadness and how many people who's hearts were breaking with sorrow, would she still be here? If she knew how many people truly cared for her and what a huge impression she left with anyone she ever crossed paths with. We will never know. She is gone and saying goodbye forever is the most painful thing there is. 

It's sad that it takes something like this to stop and actually look at and appreciate everyone and everything you have. And I want to ask something from you if you are reading this. Please take the time to let the people that you love know it today. Hug them a little tighter. Ask them how they are feeling. Just show them how much they mean to you. Because wether it's by own choice or for any other reason, they can be gone tomorrow. That's just how life works, but sometimes it's easy to forget and take life for granted. So please, for me, spend some extra time today to let the people you love know that you appreciate them. And take care of eachother.

It's taken me some time to get used to studying again and learning how to manage my time here. It's been a struggle to be able to fit some alone time in to my schedule. If I'm not having class I'm working on a group assignment and if I'm not doing that I'm catching up on reading and if I'm done with everything that has to do with studying I have other social activities within school and when I don't have that I try to spend some time with Paul. It's so busy. Now that I'm starting to get in to more of a routine and most introduction activities are over, I'm trying to build a good balance for myself between everything. Because I know myself and the way I work, and without alone time I crash. I need it like a fish needs water, without a little break from everyone and everything once in a while I can't function. I'm hoping I will learn how to fit it into my schedule. Anyways, I'm working on a big post about the introweekend we just had with the student association and will hopefully post that tomorrow, but right now I need to get back to the books. My current view is the picture above. Pretty cozy, I have to say. And speaking of cozy, my room is starting to resemble a home rather than just... A room. Look: